Beyond Civilization

By S. Muller

This book, which was first published in 1952, is a collection of letters written to describe jungle journeys while pioneering among a hitherto unreached Indian tribe in the jungles of South America.

The letters were written by the author, Sophie Muller, a missionary for the New Tribes Mission headquartered in Wisconsin, who labored tirelessly among primitive Indian tribes in the interior jungles of Columbia in South America during the early to mid-1900’s.

Beyond Civilization tells of her story and experiences.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Muriwai Books
• Release date: Dec 5, 2018
• ISBN: 9781789126525

S. Muller

Sophie Muller (1910-1995) was a missionary for the New Tribes Mission headquartered in Wisconsin. In 1944, she traded life as a graphic designer in New York City for the jungles of Colombia, Brazil, and Venezuela in order to reach the local tribes with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The original plan was to send her to the field to draw illustrations for the New Tribes Mission magazine, Brown Gold. Soon, however, Sophie Muller struck out on her own through the jungles with various traders and guides and established contact with the Curipaco people. Her first task was learning the language, and with the help of a bilingual man, she began teaching the people to read even while learning the language herself. She created a primer in their language and, ultimately, translated the New Testament in the Curipaco language and many other Indian languages. She taught the people using Bible stories and songs and began to see the people come to Christ. As the villagers came to Christ, she traveled with them, bringing the Gospel to the whole region. Over the course of her 50-plus years of ministry in the jungle, Sophie Muller was directly responsible for planting over 350 churches in the region, and an estimated 35,000 indigenous people came to Christ as a result of her service.

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Text originally published in 1952 under the same title.

© Muriwai Books 2018, all rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted by any means, electrical, mechanical or otherwise without the written permission of the copyright holder.

Publisher’s Note

Although in most cases we have retained the Author’s original spelling and grammar to authentically reproduce the work of the Author and the original intent of such material, some additional notes and clarifications have been added for the modern reader’s benefit.

We have also made every effort to include all maps and illustrations of the original edition the limitations of formatting do not allow of including larger maps, we will upload as many of these maps as possible.

BEYOND CIVILIZATION

BY

S. MULLER

A collection of letters written to describe jungle journeys while pioneering among a hitherto unreached Indian tribe in the jungles of South America.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Contents

TABLE OF CONTENTS 5

DEDICATION 6

FOREWORD 7

CHAPTER I 8

CHAPTER II 20

CHAPTER III 31

CHAPTER IV 36

CHAPTER V 42

CHAPTER VI 46

CHAPTER VII 53

CHAPTER VIII 62

CHAPTER IX 71

CHAPTER X 78

CHAPTER XI 94

REQUEST FROM THE PUBLISHER 104

DEDICATION

I DEDICATE THE MESSAGE of this book to those who will take up the challenge of the unreached tribes. The drawings in this book are dedicated to my first art teacher and best earthly friend—my father. These art efforts are the last that I have taken to him or ever can take to him for his approval; for the Lord has since lifted him away to view with rapture and delight the works of the Master Artist.

—S. MULLER

FOREWORD

THIS ACCOUNT of the jungle journeys of Sophie Muller should be a challenge to every real Christian heart. In Beyond Civilization, Sophie has shared with us the heartaches and the joys, the fears and the peace, the physical torments and God’s deliverance, the failures and the victories that attended her pioneer effort among the hitherto unreached jungle tribe—the Kuripako Indians.

Like David in the Psalms, sharing his failures and triumphs, Sophie has enabled us to live with her in this jungle job, since we find in her so much of the expression of our own hearts.

So often missionaries are pictured as spiritual giants treading down the forces of evil by the sheer power of their personalities. Sophie is a slight girl who leaves no impression of possessing traits of human boldness, but we are sure that God has put within her heart a real love and concern for lost souls. Her letters telling of these five years of pioneer work were not written with the intent of being published; and when Sophie says, I’m scared... she is not dramatizing a jungle scene, but is giving an honest account of her own life.

The Holy Spirit can use this testimony to demonstrate once again that God uses people of like passions as we. The Apostle Paul came to the place where he gloried in his weakness, because he knew that at those times he was strongest in his trust in the Lord. God does not need human strength or human frailty, but simply a yielded life. Perhaps because of the frailty and simplicity of Sophie’s life, it has pleased God to use her as one of the weak and foolish things of this world.

Many, including strong men who have gone out to the mission field fortified with an overestimation of their human abilities, have fled to much safer ground at their first contact with the forces of destruction arrayed against them. Undoubtedly there are some who would quickly question the wisdom of a single woman working alone in these jungle areas. The difficulty in obtaining Colombian visas has prevented other women joining Sophie at the present time. The fact that women so greatly outnumber men on the mission field allows us to question if the Holy Spirit has led a majority of the men to their ease-seeking existence in America.

We are certain that God wants the tribes to hear of His Son. Christ died for a world, and the redeemed shall come out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation. There are an estimated 3,000 different tongues in the world. An estimated 1,000 tribes have never been reached with even the name of Jesus. There are some 1,700 languages without a single word of Scripture. God has given us the ministry of reconciliation, constraining us by His love to bear this message to these darkened hearts, dying without hope.

—J. RUSKIN GARBER

October 13, 1952.

CHAPTER I

AFTER LEAVING the United States shores for Colombia, the first restless six months were spent, more or less, in trying the patience of a hard-working medical missionary in the city of Pasto, who had welcomed me into her home. Knowing that God had sent me to South America to reach a tribe whose language was unknown and unwritten, I set off by myself—for want of better visible company—to find such a tribe.

After months of travel through Colombia by truck, horse, riverboat and canoe, seeking tribal information from various missionaries, and studying the Spanish language en route, I found myself at the World Evangelization Crusade jungle station among the Cubeo Indians on the Rio Cudiari. There I learned much about unreached tribes, including the Kuripakos, who were located on the rivers northeast of the Cubeo territory.

At the end of three weeks of travel, terrible for a tenderfoot, in dugout canoes and on jungle trails, I arrived at one of the larger Kuripako settlements known as Sejal, on the Rio Guainia. I was received with great interest by the tribespeople and began to work immediately on their language. The experiences that followed this first contact led, through much trial and error, to a workable plan for reaching these people.

May the following experiences not only be profitable to those going out into similar work, but also give a vision, via the Kuripakos, of the complete spiritual darkness of jungle tribes scattered over the face of the earth. There are many joys and sorrows in pioneer work with primitive people in bringing them Christ, the true Light. However, the pleasure overbalances the pain as you watch His splendor fall on a dark heart here and there, creating a like flame—ever so feeble—where there was none before.

Then, too, He shines in your own heart as He never did at home. The still, small Voice goes well with the nightly symphony of the jungle and the din of waters swirling over rocks in a nearby river. In the misty radiance of the tropical moon it is not difficult to be conscious of the heavenly host round about, and the Lord walking in the shadows of the palms even as He walked in the garden in the cool of a day long ago. Often I would sit in my hammock at night and watch the heavenly scene, and it was beautiful! Sometimes I think the Lord was almost a stranger to me until I got alone with Him down there.

After three years among the Kuripakos on the Rio Guainia, the following account began to be written of an evangelistic and teaching trip to the Rio Isana of northern Brazil. The language of this section is called Karom by the Kuripakos, but is known as Maniba by the Brazilian Government. It is entirely different from the Maniba of Venezuela. These Indians are of the Kuripako tribe, but, because of the vast, uninhabited stretches of flooded jungle land and mountains between them, traffic is scant; so the two dialects have grown much apart.

*****

We’re off for the Rios Cuyari and Isana! I’m scared to breathe. This little canoe is about an inch above the water, and we are in regular flood waters. All the palms along the banks of the Guainia are up to their necks in water, shaking their green hair in the current. The Indians say the trail across to the Cuyari is waist-deep in water, but I’m trusting the